title: Clinical isolate of a porinless Salmonella typhi resistant to high levels of chloramphenicol.
abstract: We studied a clinical isolate of Salmonella typhi (strain 1895) characterized by resistance to 200 micrograms of chloramphenicol per ml despite the absence of chloramphenicol-inactivating activity. The outer membrane protein profile analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis indicated a deficiency of one of the major protein species which may serve as a porin for entry of chloramphenicol. When the strain was transformed with a plasmid encoding chloramphenicol acetyltransferase, chloramphenicol added to the culture was not inactivated, suggesting a drastic reduction of permeability towards the drug. Moreover, transformants bearing a plasmid coding for the Escherichia coli OmpF porin became considerably more susceptible to chloramphenicol (40 micrograms/ml). On the other hand, transformants carrying a plasmid encoding the Salmonella typhi ompC gene remained as resistant to the drug as the parental strain, even though they overexpressed OmpC. These findings indicate that the lack of OmpF plays a major role in the resistance to chloramphenicol in strain 1895.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biología Celular, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago.
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Toro
authors.forename: S R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Lobos
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Calderón
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: G C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Mora
mesh_terms: D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects; D002701:Chloramphenicol / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology; D002702:Chloramphenicol Resistance / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D003227:Conjugation, Genetic; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D009154:Mutation; D010957:Plasmids; D012270:Ribosomes / Q000502:physiology; D012485:Salmonella typhi / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; D002701:Chloramphenicol